Okay, so most people get nervous when they hear that the government is planning to get involved in something that most people don’t consider a national emergency. Right now, there are two wars in the Middle East to worry about, the struggling economy, corporate corruption, and even the swine flu outbreak to deal with. That should be plenty to keep Congress busy, right? Then why are they getting involved in sports – this time college football’s Bowl Championship Series – again? 
Because they can, and because when they do, good things happen.
You may disagree with government intervention on principle, but you can’t argue with the results. The most recent example of government intervention into the sports world involved steroid testing in Major League Baseball and other professional sports. We all remember Mark McGwire’s testimony about not wanting to talk about the past, and Rafael Palermo’s finger shaking claims that he never took steroids – just a few weeks before his positive steroid test was announced. Then there was Roger Clemens v. Brian McNamee in front of Congress last March.
Congress got involved…and how did all that turn out? Very well, thank you. Sure, it’s easy to say that Congress should have more important things to do that meddle in the business of professional sports. Certainly they do. But we ARE talking about the business of sports, right? They do and should have the time to spend on regulating an industry that clearly needs it, an industry that’s the livelihood of thousands and thousands of people that don’t wear a team’s uniform. The industry is vitally important to a lot of American citizens. Congress getting involved in baseball and steroid testing has had nothing but a positive impact on the game, from rooting out those who’ve broken the rules to more importantly, setting new standards for testing and punishment. Baseball is a better game today because the government got involved.
Now it’s the BCS’s turn on capital hill, and it’s a wonderful thing for fans of college football. The BCS is a mess, and left alone, absolutely nothing will change. That’s been made very clear by the good ‘ol boys who run it. The system is unfairly tilted to specific conferences without regard to who has earned opportunities. The most recent obvious examples from this past season are unbeaten Utah of the Mountain West Conference being denied a shot at the national title, and unbeaten Boise State of the Western Athletic Conference being totally left out of any BCS bowl game in favor of teams with numerous losses from the BCS affiliated conferences. It’s a sham.
College football clearly needs a play-off system for a number of reasons. The obvious reason is to crown a true national champion on the field as they do in every other sport. The current method of voting for a champion is akin to judges (with their own personal agendas) deciding who wins the gold medal in figure skating. The participants and the followers of the game deserve a clear resolution to who is number one. It works in every other college sport without causing any problems. It’s what the competitors and their followers want and deserve.
Another reason is money. Cynics point to money and greed being a corrupting influence on college sports, but in this day and age of intense media coverage of everything and the transparency involved, it would be all but impossible for a new play-off system to be so corrupt as to not have a HUGE financial benefit to EVERY college sports program. Under the current system, only a select few get a guaranteed chunk of the financial pie. The dollars generated from college football’s post season would be far more evenly shared if the BCS was dismantled and the all-encompassing play-off system put in place.
The NCAA basketball tournament is a bonanza for the sport, and far more schools benefit financially. A football play-off, no matter the number of teams involved, would be much much bigger than basketball and generate the kind of mega-dollars for the schools that could allow many to reinstate some non-revenue programs. Places like Colorado State and Colorado, where sports like wrestling and baseball have been axed because of lack of money. We will all know exactly what ESPN or Fox or whomever pays for the TV rights. How can we not know how that money will be allocated?
Having a play-off system that generates big money is not a bad thing.
Hopefully the government’s involvement in College Football will have the same positive effect it’s had on Major League Baseball. It’s time to end the corrupt and unfair BCS system and it’s clear that the sport itself and the NCAA won’t do so without some serious prodding.
Be sure to call your congressional representative and thank him or her when we finally get a college football play-off system.
(Photo of Hon. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman
House Committee on Energy and Commerce)
For more info: House Energy and Commerce Committee Hearings
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